


I almost died that night

by starrymilkyway



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: Dramione FanFiction Forum, F/M, Mentioned Ginny Weasley, Mentioned Luna Lovegood - Freeform, Mentioned Neville Longbottom, Mentioned Ron Weasley, dramione forced to live together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:27:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28096140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrymilkyway/pseuds/starrymilkyway
Summary: Standalone scene (for now?) where Hermione and Draco are being forced to live together, inspiration from Isolation, and they have a fight.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	I almost died that night

“You know, when you disappeared after that night last year everyone thought you were dead, and I am starting to think that we would all be better off if you were” Hermione spat.

Her eyes were flashing with rage and her skin was flushed red with anger.

“Is that all you pathetic Gryffindors can come up with” Draco sneered, cocking his head and stalking toward her. “You’re all too noble to even come up with a proper death threat. I bet you think that you really hurt me just now don’t you”.

He stopped walking about three feet from her and instead leered down with his lip curled and his eyes blazing.

“Well guess what mudblood, I have no problem telling you that I wish you and your even more pathetic Order lot were dead, hell I would even volunteer to do it myself”.

He hardly had time to smirk when he saw the effect of his words on her before he was slammed into the wall behind him.

He couldn’t even pretend to be surprised, he knew it was coming. He hated himself for it, but he had come to recognize her flashes of emotion from her eyes, and when they turned that blood-red color, he knew that he had pushed her over the edge.

She stared at the spot he had landed, her wand still trained on him, but she wasn’t really looking at him.

Her vision had gone hazy and she was breathing very quick short breaths.

She realized that she had backed up into the wall when he had come too close to her, so now she let her legs collapse and she slid down, reaching his eye level.

They were both silent for what felt like an eternity.

He held still against the wall, not even attempting to move since he knew it was futile.

She was still staring at him with that far away look in her eyes.

Then he watched as her face seemed to drain of color, going from fiery red to almost ashen. Her eyes, her golden, occasionally red eyes, seemed to turn the grey of his own.

He didn’t know why that change affected him so suddenly and so powerfully, but he instantly wanted to take back his words. He had gone too far and he knew it, but he was not one to withdraw from a confrontation, once in, he gave it his all. _"My useless pride"_ he thought.

Looking at her now, he felt a pang of something he had vowed never to feel again. It was almost like guilt; guilt, and anger at himself for having caused her such pain.

He desperately wished that she would speak because the silence was starting to suffocate him.

She suddenly met his eyes and was once again present, her stare driving through him.

He faced her, willing himself to keep his composure and keep his face a mask, but he could not take it once second longer and broke the connection, staring instead at the ground by her feet.

When she finally spoke, her voice was hollow and she sounded as though she was very far away, though he could feel her eyes on him.

“I almost died that night.”

He looked up, his startled features clear as day, unable to keep a blank face. He didn’t know what he was expecting her to say but it certainly was not that.

“I should have died that night.”

He was taken aback at her words as well as plain confused, but he did not dare shatter that newfound calmness, however eerie it felt.

She continued in the same hollow, emotionless tone: “When you let the Death Eaters in, you and whoever else disappeared upstairs right away but the rest stayed back. Only Ginny, Ron, Neville, Luna, and I were there until the Order arrived.”

A scene came out from his suppressed memories of the night, of the five members of Dumbledore's Army in the corridor as he went straight up the stairs of the tower.

At the time, he barely noticed them, his mind was racing with his impending task, it was all he could do to keep climbing each step.

“We were out-numbered” she continued, “ and we had no idea when help would come if it did at all, and I was so worried for Harry, we had no idea where he was or what was happening”

He understood now where she was going with her story and he realized that she was right, she and her friends were definitely outnumbered that night and facing some of the worst, evilest wizards there are.

As he thought it over now, he didn’t understand how she did make it out alive, even if they had had fair numbers, they stood little chance of defeating the Death Eaters that stayed at the bottom of the tower.

He waited for her to continue, wondering if she could sense the question in his mind.

She did. “It was Harry. Before he left that night, he had given us the rest of his Felix Felicis potion, the one he had won that first day in Professor Slughorns class.”

He remembered that day. It was the one time had he really tried in potions class, knowing that winning the Felix Felicis would have greatly helped his mission, yet he still managed to lose to that idiotic prat Potter.

“We all split it, we had maybe half an hour each there was so little left. It worked though, every curse seemed to fly by our ear or arm, missing us by an inch or less each time. We managed to stop a few of them ourselves, even through all the chaos. When the Order finally arrived it should have been such a relief, but I still didn’t know where or how Harry was.”

It was clear that she was speaking straight from her memories, more to herself than to him and he almost felt like he was intruding on something too personal to hear. 

She stopped suddenly and he looked up from the silence and met her gaze.

Gone was the empty, ashy grey, her eyes were now filled with the pure stony grey of loathing, a color he knew quite well from all of his pathetic days staring at himself in the mirror of the bathroom last year, utterly wishing he were dead.

He held his breath even though he knew what happened next.

“Then you and Snape and your Death Eaters came rushing out,” she said quietly. “And Snape said that it was done.”

All of the regret and nausea and self-loathing from that night came rushing back to him like a tidal wave dragging him under the surface.

He knew she must be feeling a similar tidal wave, but for different reasons.

“I may not have died that night but I sure as hell felt like I did.”

He waited for the final blow.

“It was all your fault”

His head went fuzzy and the wave of nausea was suddenly not a memory but a current, real feeling. He couldn’t see but he felt the magic holding him to the wall fall away, and heard the distant slam of her door.

And he was alone.


End file.
